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House Looks to Pass War Funding by Recess

By Bernie Becker June 24, 2010 7:36 pmJune 24, 2010 7:36 pm

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday stressed the importance of passing a war spending bill by the time lawmakers leave for an Independence Day recess, but questions remain about what exactly will be included in the legislation.

At a briefing, Ms. Pelosi indicated she was open to splitting the measure into two parts to help grease the wheels for passage and did not tip her hand on whether funds to help stave off teacher layoffs would be included.

Meanwhile, at his own news conference, Representative John A. Boehner, the minority leader, called for what he termed “clean” legislation to fund military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and suggested his conference could support a measure similar to what the Senate has passed, which included some nonmilitary spending.

On a related note, Ms. Pelosi said she did not believe that replacing Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as top commander in Afghanistan with Gen. David H. Petraeus would have much impact on the vote for the war spending bill.

“There is unease in our caucus, as you well know, about the situation in Afghanistan. I don’t think that the change in command affects that,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The president is the commander-in-chief. We all stand by him in his decision that he made in terms of who would be in command in Afghanistan.”

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…